Sudan civil war: ‘Our future is over’ – the women fleeing a year of conflict

On the side of a dirt road in Adré, a key crossing on the Sudan-Chad border, 38-year-old Buthaina sits on the ground, surrounded by other women. Each of them has their children by their side. None seems to have any belongings.

Buthaina and her six children fled el-Fasher, a besieged city in the Darfur region of Sudan, more than 480km (300 miles) away, when food and drink ran out.

“We left with nothing, we just ran for our lives,” Buthaina tells the BBC. “We didn’t want to leave – my children were top of their class at school and we had a good life at home.”

Sudan’s civil war began in April last year when the army (SAF) and the their former paramilitary allies, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), began a vicious struggle for power, in part over proposals to move towards civilian rule.

The war, which shows no signs of ending, has claimed thousands of lives, displaced millions of people and plunged parts of the country into famine.

And aid agencies warn Sudan could soon experience the worst famine of anywhere in the world unless significantly more help arrives.

The BBC saw the desperation of Sudanese people first-hand when we visited camps in Adré, on the country’s western border, and Port Sudan, which is the country’s main aid hub, 1,600km away on the east coast.